The Independent Republic of the Canongate - tells the stories behind the PR spin of the developers, the architects, politicians and council officials here in Edinburgh, the UK and the world

Saturday, 5 July 2008

Credit Crunch Casulties Continue

Will this happen to Crooked Caltongate? Time will tell......The following will ring a few bells....

Credit crunch threatens Gehry's Hove scheme

2 July, 2008 Building Design By Marguerite LazellFrank Gehry's controversial scheme for the Hove sea front has been thrown into doubt because of the credit crunch.

Karis, the developer of the £290 million scheme to build 750 apartments and a leisure centre, admitted on Tuesday that the economic downturn could scupper the project.

Managing director Josh Aghiros told BD: "At the moment, due to the economic climate as it is, we’re doing a viability study. There’s no conclusion. All options are open.

"With the way house prices are any major development in the country is in this position."

The scheme was granted planning permission on the casting vote of the chairman of the Brighton & Hove Council planning committee in March 2007 after local opposition to the scale of the development.On Tuesday, Gehry confirmed his involvement with the project was over. In an interview in the Guardian with BD columnist Jonathan Glancey, he said: "Don’t go there. It was a painful experience. I guess I never did understand your planning system and all those interfering government design advisers."

Aghiros commented that the King Alfred project was not the sort of scheme Gehry was used to working on. "The major projects that Frank Gehry has done have been funded by philanthropists, or institutions," he said. “This is a commercial proposition that needs to stand on its own feet. If it’s viable we’ll proceed.”Aghiros said a final decision about the future of the project would be made by the end of July.